COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Changes that the U.S. Mint made to the chosen design for Missouri's state quarter are unacceptable, Columbia artist Paul Jackson said Tuesday.

Each governor's office has been asked to provide three to five concepts for its state quarter, as part of an ongoing program to create a new quarter for all of the 50 states.

In Missouri, first lady Lori Hauser Holden solicited artists' renderings and asked residents to vote for their favorites before submitting the top five to the Mint. Mint engravers then used the concepts to create designs.

Rendered 'useless'

"They took a finished work and turned it to a rough draft," Jackson said. "My understanding was they were going to render our designs on the quarter. That's not what they've done. They've rendered mine useless."

After the state's designs were submitted to the Mint, artists revised the drawings for technical ease, historical accuracy and artistic value. The Mint's versions were presented in March to the Commission of Fine Arts and the Citizens Commemorative Coin Committee.

The one based on Jackson's original drawing -- a canoe with two paddlers on a tree- and bluff-lined river with the St. Louis Arch in the background -- was chosen.

First-round changes to Jackson's coin include a higher and more-pointed bow on the canoe, which now includes an extra paddler, the misspelling of the word bicentennial and the removal of background scenery and shadows.

Additional revisions are still to come and the Treasury Department will make a final decision in several months.

Mint spokesman Matt Kilborne said the Treasury Department's decision would most likely reflect Gov. Bob Holden's preference. Kilborne said it is too early to comment on specific changes to the design. He said all the designs are collaborative and none is the work of a single artist.

"Let me emphasize that this is not about the artists -- theirs or ours," Kilborne said. "The rules of our program is that we solicit design concepts."

Jackson should have known his design could be changed, said the first lady's chief of staff, Nia Ray.

She said the artists and everyone involved in the process knew the Mint could change the drawings. She said the Mint has always had final authority to choose the design.

Barton Burnell, another Missouri design finalist, said he knew revisions were possible but that he, too, was disappointed with the Mint's changes to his quarter, which depicted an American Indian on a river bluff. It now shows an Indian on a hill with wagons in the background.

Beth Deisher, editor of Coinworld.com and a member of the Ohio State Quarter Commission, said artists across the country have complained about changes the Mint made, especially in states that held contests.

"That's what creates some of the hard feelings and perhaps the misunderstandings. It's the way it's presented to the public."